The Best Football Boots of 2016, Ten Years On

This weekend, Admin reached for an old pair of Magistas.

They had been sitting on the shelf looking ready. The upper still felt good, the soleplate was where it should be and nothing suggested a problem. Then the glue gave way.

That is the risk with old football boots. A pair can look untouched while the glue, foam and bonding underneath have spent a decade ageing. Everything feels normal until the boot flexes and the soleplate decides it has had enough.

The performance gap is much smaller. A good elite boot from 2016 can still feel quick, comfortable and clean on the ball. A Superfly IV has not become slow because Nike released several more Mercurials. A Morelia II still feels like a Morelia II. Admin's Magistas still felt like Magistas, right up until they started coming apart.

Even with fresh glue and no durability worries, Admin would choose the 2026 pair. Modern uppers are generally softer, lockdown is more reliable and there are better soleplate options for firm ground, artificial grass and turf. Nostalgia remembers the colourway, the player and the old advert before it remembers the heel slip or stiff first wear.

Still, that takes nothing away from this lot. We have gone back through SoccerBible's Top 20 Football Boots of 2016, kept the original order and looked at each pair with ten years of hindsight.

Some could still handle a proper match. Some belong on the shelf. A few make you wonder why brands stopped being this strange.

The Top 20 Football Boots of 2016, Revisited

20. Mizuno Morelia II MD "Blue/White"

The first sign that this list looks different ten years later. The Mizuno Morelia II sits at number 20, yet it has aged better than plenty above it.

Soft leather, sensible lacing, a simple soleplate and that Morelia shape. It will not feel as sharp as a current speed boot, but put it on and the appeal still makes sense. 

19. Nike Tiempo Legend 6 "Academy Pack"

Another leather boot that has survived the decade comfortably. The Academy Pack stripped the Tiempo Legend 6 back to black, with just a small flash of colour underneath.

This was a fuller, more padded Tiempo than the current Nike Tiempo. Some players will feel the extra weight. Others will call it comfort.

A Rolls-Royce of a boot.

18. adidas ACE 16+ Purecontrol "Viper Pack"

Then 2016 starts behaving like 2016.

The ACE 16+ removed the laces, wrapped the upper in a Viper graphic and handed the whole thing to Paul Pogba. It looked like football boots had changed overnight.

The lockdown never matched a properly laced boot, especially if your foot did not fill the upper exactly as adidas intended. The idea was bigger than the execution. What a year adidas had, though. We are still glad the Predator came back mind.

17. Nike Hypervenom Phantom II "Camo Pack"

This pair belongs to a season. Vardy, Mahrez, Leicester's title run and camo boots doing a poor job of hiding once they reached the pitch.

The Phantom II remains the awkward middle Hypervenom. It lost some of the low, flexible feel of the original and never felt as complete as the Phantom III. The boot has aged. The memory around it has not.

16. adidas Pogba ACE 16+ Purecontrol "Black/Gold"

Signature boots had more personality when Pogba was at the centre of adidas Football.

Black upper, gold details, POGBOOM on one heel and POGBANCE on the other. There was no attempt to make them work for anyone else. That was the point.

The Purecontrol still had its lockdown issues, but Pogba made the whole thing believable.

POGBOOM.

15. Nike Tiempo Premier "Triple White"

A clean reset after the Pogba pair. White leather and a Tiempo Premier shape that looked just as comfortable in a Sunday league changing room as it did in a product shoot.

The Nike Premier is still going because the original idea was sound. Soft upper, forgiving fit and enough structure to get through a season. The triple white finish lasted until the first wet pitch. Nice while it lasted.

14. Nike Mercurial Vapor XI "Tech Craft IV"

Tech Craft looks more interesting now than it did at the time. Nike took the tight, low-profile Vapor XI and softened the upper with leather, giving players speed-boot shape without the usual thin synthetic touch.

The fit stayed close, the soleplate stayed sharp and the leather added a little give on the ball. The Vapor 17, Mizuno Alpha III and Under Armour Shadow cover parts of that brief now.

Nike still owes us a TECHLEATHER Tech Craft pack.

13. Nike NJR x Jordan Hypervenom Phantom II

Neymar and Jordan on the same boot. White upper, elephant print, Jumpman branding. Almost impossible to miss.

It was also wasted on the weakest Hypervenom. The colourway deserved the softer Phantom I or the much better-rounded Phantom III.

Lovely pair. Wrong host.

12. PUMA evoSPEED SL "Grass"

Most people remember the warning sticker before the boot. PUMA chased weight so hard that durability became part of the instructions.

Admin's pair survived longer than the famous five-match warning suggested, but they never felt built for a full season. Thin upper, very little protection and almost nothing between foot and ball.

The PUMA Ultra took evoSPEED's place in the range, while the F50 Hyperfast EVO now owns the same wonderfully unnecessary weight obsession.

11. Diadora Brasil Italy OG "Blackout"

Perfect placement next to the evoSPEED. One boot came with a durability warning. The other looks ready to be passed down.

The Brasil Italy blackout is your dad's favourite boot, assuming your dad knows boots. Thick leather, fold-over tongue and a fit that settles around the foot instead of squeezing it into a preset shape.

The Brasil remains in the current Diadora football boots range. No replacement required.

10. adidas ACE 17+ Purecontrol "Black/White/Red"

Black, white and red did most of the visual work. Underneath, adidas had moved the Purecontrol forward with a more settled upper and Boost underfoot.

That Boost setup arrived about ten years early. Current boots now borrow more cushioning ideas from running, but adidas had already put its best-known foam beneath an elite football boot.

Players after the same high-cut shape today will find a more secure fit in the Nike Phantom 6 High.

9. adidas 99g

This boot was mostly a number, and what a number it was.

Only 299 pairs, each individually marked and all made in UK 8.5. adidas removed almost everything that did not help reach 99 grams, creating something closer to an experiment than a normal match boot.

Could it still handle a game? Yes. Would Admin trust it across a season? Absolutely not. The F50 Hyperfast EVO is the grown-up version, if grown-up is the right word.

8. adidas X 16+ Purechaos "Space Craft"

You needed to be good to wear these. A gold laceless speed boot left no room for hiding at right-back and keeping things tidy.

Under the finish was a combination that still works: soft leather across the forefoot with a quick, close shape behind it.

The leather adidas F50 carries some of that spirit. The Mizuno Morelia Neo V Beta is the calmer option for players who want soft leather without moving into a traditional boot.

7. Nike Tiempo Legend VI Pirlo

A merlot leather Tiempo for a footballer who owned a vineyard. Sometimes the obvious idea is the right one.

The colour suited Pirlo, but so did the boot. Soft touch, enough padding across the ball and a shape that never looked in a rush. The Legend VI would still compete with current leather boots because the important parts were already there.

This pair could return tomorrow without looking like a retro costume. Raise a glass.

6. Nike Mercurial Superfly CR7 Quinhentos

The Quinhentos borrowed from one of Ronaldo's favourite Vapor III colourways and stretched it across the taller Superfly shape.

That should describe something awkward. It does not. The Superfly IV and V era could carry loud designs without losing the Mercurial underneath.

A current Mercurial Superfly fits more cleanly and feels better underfoot. The old one still looks better. Look at them.

5. Nike Mercurial x EA Sports Superfly V

Football and gaming collaborations are normal now. This one landed before every brand had tried it.

The pixelated graphic moved from old 16-bit games towards FIFA 17, and the Superfly V underneath was good enough to stop it feeling like a novelty. Tight fit, sharp soleplate and a Flyknit upper that still feels quick.

Superfly IV and V will always have Admin's heart.

4. adidas ACE 16+ Purecontrol "Mercury Pack"

Silver upper, lime soleplate, Pogba at EURO 2016. This was the Purecontrol colourway.

Under tournament lights, the ACE looked properly new. The first laceless fit could feel vague around some feet, but the boot had a player and visual identity strong enough to carry the flaws.

Admin would still wear these. The opening ten minutes would be spent trying to channel inner Pogba, followed by a sensible return to the simple pass.

3. Nike Magista Obra II "BHM"

The Magista-shaped hole in Nike's current range has only become more obvious.

It was a knitted control boot with a rounded forefoot, textured upper and enough padding to stop the touch feeling too thin. It had its own look and feel, rather than sitting somewhere between Mercurial and Tiempo.

PLEASE NIKE, DO A MAGISTA RGN.

2. Nike "What The Mercurial" Superfly IV

Twelve old Mercurials on one Superfly should have looked like somebody had emptied the archive onto a boot.

Nike made it flow. Every section carried a reference for Mercurial obsessives, but the pair still looked complete from a distance. It rewarded people who knew the archive without becoming a quiz printed across the upper.

The Superfly IV underneath could still play now. Close fit, direct touch and one of the best shapes of the knitted Mercurial era.

1. adidas GLITCH16

Nothing else could really be number one.

GLITCH launched through an app and invite code, then split the boot into an inner shoe and interchangeable outer skins. You could change the colour and graphic without buying a complete new boot every time.

It also gave adidas somewhere to play with old ideas while Predator was away. Some of the Predator-inspired skins remain top tier, and the system made perfect sense in five-a-side. New skin, different kit, cage lights, somebody asking where you got them before kick-off.

As a serious match boot, GLITCH now shows its age. The fit depended on getting the inner and outer combination right, while the two-piece setup never felt as clean or secure as a current one-piece boot.

It would still go platinum at five-a-side. Modern laceless football boots perform better. Very few are this interesting.

How Much Better Are Modern Football Boots?

Modern boots are better on balance, but the gap is smaller than ten years of launches would have you believe.

A good elite boot from 2016 can still handle a proper game. The old Mercurials remain quick and direct, while the Morelia II, Tiempo Legend VI and Brasil Italy prove that good leather, shape and comfort do not stop working when a new upper arrives.

Current boots are more settled. Synthetic uppers usually need less break-in, lockdown is more reliable and there are better soleplate options for firm ground, artificial grass and turf. Saving a few grams matters far less than having a boot that fits properly and grips the surface underneath you.

The bigger problem is age. An unworn pair from 2016 still has ten-year-old glue, foam and bonding. Admin's Magistas looked ready for another game. The glue had other plans.

Even with fresh bonding, Admin would still take the 2026 pair. Nostalgia can turn awkward fit and loose lockdown into part of the charm. Sometimes the old boot was simply awkward.

That takes nothing away from these twenty. They were close enough on performance, full of personality and tied to players, tournaments and ideas people still remember. Modern boots perform better. Very few make you feel like this lot did.

Browse the current football boots range by brand, surface and fit.